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[Michelle Sperling, Clinical Psychotherapist]
>My name is Michelle Sperling and I’m a clinical psychotherapist and I am the manager of the Recovery Support Services at the Butterfly Foundation. 
Body Image is the perception of a person’s physical self and thoughts and feelings that result from that perception. The development of positive body image is really important for a young person as it helps with their positive self-perception and self-esteem as an adult. It is one of the core protective factors for a person to be more resilient in developing an eating disorder.

[Positive body image can protect teenagers from developing an eating disorder]
[Danielle]
>Hi, I’m Danielle, I was 19 when I was diagnosed with an eating disorder, anorexia nervosa. I think body image in general is an issue that most people face whether it be when they wake up in the morning and not feel good about themselves but they can overcome that and have the strategies to defer the thoughts etc, but there may be some people who are more vulnerable to developing eating disorders. There’s an unbalanced approach to life. For me, there was a fixation on food and exercise and shape.

[External risk factors: social media, TV, film and magazines, societal pressure ]
>Michelle speaks. Body Dissatisfaction is an internal process that results from external factors, for example: families, friends, acquaintances, social media can all have an impact on the way a person sees and feels the about themselves. Body image happens at all ages, so it is really important to establish a really good body image at a young age. 

[Psychological risk factors: negative thoughts, low self-esteem, depression, black-and-white thinking, comparing to others. ]
Some factors that can increase negative self-body image are Negative self-talk, low self-esteem, depression. Adolescent girls are more prone to Body Dissatisfaction than adolescent boys, however this rate is increasing rapidly with adolescent boys and we are aware of that.
There are personality traits, ummm, for instance those that have perfectionistic tendencies, black-and-white thinking, very rigid, rule-orientated and internalised beauty processes and compare themselves to other, are at risk of Body Dissatisfaction.
Changing actual appearance is counterproductive. It is more constructive to focus more on body image as a goal. 

[Things to encourage: positive internal dialogue, talking about feelings rather than appearance, positive parental role modelling, focus on health rather than weight. ]
Some of the things we talk about is positive self-talk. Support from the parents to talk more about emotional feelings rather than appearance, shape or weight. Less comparing with others and really good role modelling from the parents about their own potential body image concerns, and focusing rather on positive and healthy goals rather than weight loss purpose goals.

>Danielle speaks. I really, really, really struggled what people would say when I was recovering, was people would say “Oohhh, you are looking so healthy”. That to me meant you noticed a change in my weight and now I am feeling really anxious. So for someone to say “You are looking healthy”, you kind of, you join the dots together and you think well, that’s that’s not what I wanted to hear. Instead what I used to love, was when someone would ask me about my life “What have you been doing?” then they’d seemed genuinely interested in me as a person. 

>Michelle speaks. So it’s really important that although we can offer some advice and practical tips to parents. For them to know they are not alone in this process - there are support services available. 
[The Butterfly Foundation, 1800 334 673, thebutterflyfoundation.org.au ]
Butterfly’s national support helpline offers support counselling, information and referrals.  And we also provide support to those who are experiencing body dissatisfaction or disordered eating or eating disorder behaviours and presentations. 

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